You may have noticed some posts regarding Skype being for sale and possibly acquired by Google this past weekend. While a few people have speculated Google would be the only purchaser, Andy throws in Oracle and Cisco. I agree with Andy and would add IBM, Microsoft and SalesForce.com into this group as any of these companies would want to strengthen their subscriber bases and having Skype in their portfolios means a strong integration with a very popular software package which can be leveraged to provide a great unified communications solution.Oracle and IBM especially would be able to leverage Skype in this fashion. Of course yes -- Skype is a consumer play but I hear over and over how often Skype is used in the corporate environment. I haven't seen a study on how many customers do use Skype at work but I think the company is very valuable and combined with a partner who can realize the true synergies, there is likely much hidden potential here.
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Well if Google buys Skype than it could throw Skype on Google Android and get the whole Voip going. I mean that Gphone could just be data and you wouldn't even need a voice plan. You could just use wifi and 3G
Great point -- they do have their own VoIP platform of course but it doesn't seem terribly popular. I do think the synergy between Skype and Android is tremendous. The only problem of course is upsetting the service providers Google needs to get its phones widely distributed.
Still, if Google was to purchase Skype and tie Skype into the carrier's IM systems to boost messaging revenue -- now we are talking about a win-win.
If Google bought Skype wouldn't it be using metcalf to buy a large market and more eyeballs for it's natural business which is selling advertising.
Looking for a pizza? Skype google on your gphone.
Plus Google can throw skype onto it's computing infrastructure which is bound to be a big saving vs what ebay is paying at the moment.
Great points but one wonders how much time Google is devoting to rewriting code for its own servers as opposed to making products better. I have heard of problems with Google's attempts to rewrite the code of the companies it acquires. Obviously not an easy task.